This article is the fourth of a series of articles exploring specific aspects of groupware. The brief informational articles in this series discuss some of the technologies associated with groupware, as well as some of the characteristics of groupware. Some of these characteristics may go hand in hand with business collaborative needs. Other characteristics go beyond what some groupware providers have to offer. The purpose of these articles is to equip the groupware user or investigator with helpful knowledge about the product in order to enable more effective use or to lead the investigator to the groupware service he or she is looking for. This fourth article explores the ability of groupware to facilitate online collaboration.
Online Collaboration
Online collaboration consists of sending emails back and forth to edit and review attached documents, like market reports, budgets, contracts, and press releases. Most businesses go through this process very regularly with departments, clients, investors, and strategic partners.
In today's fast-paced business world, businesses are constantly under deadlines, working tirelessly for their business and client needs. The challenge is in keeping up with all of the online collaboration going on. After all, online collaboration has become an ad hoc process, and document versions get saved in multiple email boxes and on multiple hard drives. When it comes time to merge document changes and create a final draft, many questions are left unanswered.
The market has recognized the need for groupware, or online collaboration software, to manage and track document changes. Using the right groupware will even enable businesses to manage ad hoc online collaboration, tracking all of the documents versions across multiple emails, hard drives, and servers. The who, what, when, where, and how are all answered, and businesses will have an organizational edge in the high-speed information age of business.
Online Collaboration Tools with Groupware
5,200,000 indexed pages are found under "groupware" in Google; 4,840,000 in Yahoo; and 955,263 in MSN Search. In order to find groupware for your business online collaboration needs, you need to be equipped with the knowledge of the tools your business needs in its groupware.
Digital Thread technology takes groupware to a whole new level and is the means of tracking document versions across emails, hard drives, and servers. Digital Thread literally threads the document versions together by tagging the metadata of an electronic document, so that no matter to whom it is sent or what changes are made, the data comes back to you. It creates digital signatures in your email, informing you whether you are opening the latest version of the document, and who saved it. As the process becomes more involved, and drafts have been sent back and forth between multiple reviewers multiple times, you'll be able to access a version history. Version history is compiled by Digital Thread technology and provides a visual display of the genealogy of the document, from first draft to last. This also makes it possible to merge the changes as the final draft is compiled.
Groupware that can manage online collaboration and go beyond a simple electronic draft filing system to work the way 21st century businesses work.
Joe Miller is an online advertiser and author of informational articles on business software. More information on online advertiser or online advertiser is available at NextPage.com.
cleaning help near Mundelein ..Remember back in the days where screensavers were the coolest... Read More
As you probably know, when Microsoft purchased Great Plains Software... Read More
Trying to figure out a stream in banning one email... Read More
... Read More
In part III of this ISDN primer, we learned that... Read More
Internet worms. Is your PC infected?If your computer has become... Read More
What is a Web Database?A web database is a database... Read More
The adware and spyware definitions list is very long. But... Read More
TCO (Total Cost Ownership) is the buzzword in... Read More
Introduction To ISDN, Part III: Configuring PPP PAP AuthenticationNow we... Read More
It is now common thing when large corporation selects mid-market... Read More
Fleet Maintenance Management is a critical position in any company... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is Dexterity-written application and currently... Read More
How to delete the user? This is the first problem... Read More
Whether you are a small consultancy firm, a medium sized... Read More
One of the things we can be as certain of... Read More
Crystal Reports is the most flexible tool on the market... Read More
When you double-click a layer in the Layer Palette, you... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS)... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions main middle market ERP application - Microsoft... Read More
I started using PIP (Picture It Publishing) Platinum 2002 right... Read More
Former Great Plains Software Dynamics/eEnterprise, and currently Microsoft Business Solutions... Read More
This article will not attempt to advocate the use of... Read More
Several software companies design programs for preventive maintenance. Most of... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has I'd say end user... Read More
reliable maid service Wilmette ..Microsoft bought Navision, Denmark based software development company, along with... Read More
Almost all new and major brand of PCs come with... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has substantial market share among... Read More
I love new technology. I am still ready to wait... Read More
Did you ever give a thought to the number of... Read More
Today's business world is fast-paced. No matter what it is... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Solomon and CRM... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions accounting package... Read More
Sometimes your PC will start acting strange for no apparent... Read More
The objective for Zandi Digital is to make available clever... Read More
Most people understand that the "hardware" part of their computer... Read More
Siebel is traditional CRM market leader, however and mostly due... Read More
What is Snort?Snort is an open source network intrusion detection... Read More
There are two major WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You... Read More
Great Plains Inventory Management (IV) module gives your business a... Read More
If you feel intimidated when someone tries to teach you... Read More
This article is for advanced Microsoft CRM SDK C# developers.... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very popular ERP platform... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has many years of successful... Read More
Java has come along a long way. Many would agree... Read More
In a previous article, I wrote about OpenOffice... Read More
Microsoft Outlook is one of the most widely used software... Read More
Make-or-Break Factors in Success and ProfitabilityFor quick printers, estimating can... Read More
You've finally created databases that you can actually use to... Read More
Stealing company information used to be the specialty of spies... Read More
Software |